Q&A with PM Belsazar

Dear players,

Thank you again for all the questions. There were a total of more than 500 questions, with tons of repetitive questions. Even though I wish I could answer them all, I decided to rather address the inquiries summed up in categories which I have compiled out of most questions asked.

 

Territory

Our official statement towards our service area has been announced here.
Pearl Abyss has released an official statement here, that covers all territories that are currently not serviced by any dedicated publisher.
We are truly sorry that we can’t service anyone that is not covered within our territory license agreement.

 

Vigor System

The feedback about the vigor system was forwarded to the developers. We are still in discussion in how far we can adjust the vigor system for our service. Many features such as the vigor system too, are interconnected with other features in the game, so it takes time to find a solution to work around certain issues that may come up due to adjusting one piece in the bigger picture.

In short: This is work in progress.

 

Mega Server

Many questions resolved around the issue that the Russian service was facing in regards of lag occurring due to the setup of a ‘mega server’. Our team, as well as devs are aware of this issue and we will address it accordingly to provide a proper performance, especially during Node Wars and other events that may lead to lag.

In short: Mega server is not planned for our service.

 

Pre-Order Packages

• About preorder packages. Is DAUM planning on changing the preorder packages in any way? Most highest tier packages include 3/4th of it’s value in cash (e.g. Blade and Soul with 90$ worth of NCcoins in a 125$ package) 
  • The pre-order packages will remain as-is. Tier 3 will be dropped after launch. Tier 1 and 2 will be reduced in content as given in the pre-order section.
    The value in our package is provided through valuable items rather than providing direct cash. And please keep in mind that you can utilze NCcoins in multiple games, this doesn’t apply to us. So the purpose of adding a higher value is different.
• Can the Character Name Reservations (from Pre-Order Packs) be saved for future classes (I don’t have any class I really want to play currently available)?
  • It is planned to make the reservation without any time limit.
• Can you use preorder pet to breed new pets?
  • Yes you can. It will be a regular pet just like any other.
• Could we please be given a heads-up to when we can reserve our Family/character names, and not have it just randomly be out of no where? So we can properly prepare time wise. Especially since your headquarters are in EU, not fair to the NA people who are at work and school, and vice versa. Would be much appreciated since it’s one of the main reasons people pre-ordered.
  • Yes, we are planning to pre-announce it so that everyone can prepare accordingly. At this stage we are considering roughly 1~2 weeks of early heads-up. Same goes about the whole claiming process for all pre-order package items.
• Do you have to claim all items on your first created Character? or can you claim from many?  For Example, Can i make 4 characters and use reserved name for Witch, Costume on Warrior, Horse whistle on Ranger, and Appearance change coupon on Valk?
  • Please check our FAQ below our pre-order packages.
•  I would like to know if a person’s progress gained via guest pass can be transferred. For example, if I buy Pro-Order and give guest pass access to my friends, then they decide to buy their membership, will their progress be wiped or can it be transferred to their new account?
  • Using a guest pass will require the creation of an account. If that guest uses the same account for purchasing the game, he will keep his progress. However, if we end up with too many unused guest accounts remaining unused after X months, we may consider to release an announcement that we will wipe those guest accounts. But this is connected to a big IF and will be announced to everyone affected on all our channels!
• If i have preorder items but i want to give them to another character in the future, a blader that will be added after the release, will be able to do it?
  • You can claim the items anytime with any character. However, weapon and costume in Tier 2 and 3 will be only available for Warrior, Sorceress, Ranger, Berserker, Wizard/Witch and Valkyrie.
• Is preorder horses either female or male or just all same gender?
• Is the horses in the pre-order package random colors?
• Will all the preorder horses look the same? Or can they have a random look (of the same tier)?
  • As given in the description at the pre-order package. It is a ‘stallion’, hence a male horse in the coloring as displayed in the picture preview.
• Please show us what the preorder exclusive costumes look like for all classes? And is it for just one character or for all characters in the account. Also will it be available for classes that haven’t been released yet, such as tamer?
  • The costumes can be found in our FAQ at the pre-order page. The costumes will only be available for the characters that are currently announced on our website.
• There are a lot of limited items in the pre-purchase, but a lot of players plan to have an Asian class as there main class, will anything be done to take these people into consideration?
  • Name reservation won’t have any time constraints. Unique costume and weapon skin will be only available, as announced, for characters available at the official launch.
• When will the people playing a Valk, witch or wizard get to see what the exclusive costume for them is? Please post a picture asap!!!
  • As soon as developers have finalized the design. The costume has never been adapted for those classes, so they are in the process of preparing them.
• Will I be able to redeem the pre-order bonuses for at least 1 character for each server? For example, in the Explorer’s Package, Will I be able to redeem a tier 3 horse or a horse whistle for 1 Character on the NA server, and 1 Character on the EU server? I’m asking because in the community I want to join, not everyone is still sure about whether they’ll play on EU or NA, and I wouldn’t want to be “stuck” to a server because of not being able to redeem the pre-order bonuses on at least 1 character per server.
• Will items from Pre Orders packages be Account bound or we will get costume+ horse e.t.c for each one character we create?
  • This is clarified in the FAQ at our pre-order page

 

Cash Shop, In-Game Economy, Pay-to-Win, PvP [PK, Flagging], In-Game features

There were many questions regarding those issues above, unfortunately we are not yet able to share details as this is still work in progress.

Our focus will be on vanity items and a few convenience items that will give you a minor advantage in matters of convenience, such as inventory slots and alike. Items such as the “Shout to Augsburg”, an item that was included as bonus in some cash shop packages, has been removed for our service. (This item could be used to increase your chances in succeeding your upgrade attempts of equipment)

Once we have finalized internally our final cash shop setup, we will share the details in our forum. So please be patient in that regards

All questions regarding economy and PvP need to remain unanswered in this stage, as we are still tweaking and adjusting on all ends.

Inquiries about new in-game features and/or about adjusting existing ones can’t be answered right now, as it will require a direct feedback from developers. We will consider the next interview (after CBT 1) to be with the developers directly [to be confirmed].

 

CBT 1 related

• Will walk toggle be implemented into the game?
  • The walking feature as requested by our service has been recently re-implemented in the Korean service. So we are awaiting the same feature for our internal CBT 1.
• Can we expect to see changes (based on feedbacks) in CBT1?
  • Yes, there will be plenty of changes being adapted from your feedback. We already received the first CBT1 build which includes couple of changes. However, more detailed changes in regards of technical specs always takes more time, so the more work the change requires, the longer it takes naturally to implement it as such. We’re getting there.
    We will reveal more details about the applied changes based on your feedback soon.
• The Name reservations gonna be for CBT’s or full released Game ?
  • All benefits, except the actuall access to the CBTs, will be only available at launch.
• Any info on CBT Dates (1&2)?
• What is the timeframe for CBT1 – CBT 2, and release.
  • CBT 1 is planned for December. CBT 2 and Launch depends heavily of the process of the localization. 2.800.000 words in 3 languages, more than 1.000 characters to be voiced. It takes time, but both, CBT 2 and Launch will be available in Q1 2016.
    CBT 1 is planned to be from Thursday 7 a.m. UTC to Monday 8 a.m. UTC; non stop. CBT 2 details will be revealed later, but most likely follow the CBT 1 schedule.
• How do we sign up for CBT 1 and 2 beta when its announce and where? Will website have sign-up for beta?
  • Details about the process will be revealed towards end of November. Those who purchased the “Conqueror’s Package” will have access automatically. Everyone else has the chance to register with their email or to grab a key from social media pages and other sources.
• Will the client be available to download, days before the CBT1? (to avoid low download speeds from the hundreds of players downloading at the same time, and also, so we don’t have to wait for download and go right into the game)
  • Download speed will be increased from the alpha stage. Also we will offer the download roughly 3 days in advance prior to CBT 1 start. Offering it earlier doesn’t make much sense as there may be additional patches applied from developer’s side and then require another update at your end, which we would like to prevent. So our goal is to offer the final CBT 1 build once the download page is up.
• Many players think that pets and dyes should be available in game too, to some extent (e.g. getting just 1 tier 1 pet from quest line like in CBT1 KR; to be able to craft dyes). Are there any chances of this happening?
  • Happening? No. Being considered? Yes. Developers for example are currently looking into the dye system, as we have requested to apply some changes there. But details are still too vague to be shared at this stage. Pets via quests or even events is very likely to happen, but I don’t want to make empty promises, so we’ll have to see about this at a later stage.
• Will  we be testing Node/Castle Sieges during CBT1 or 2, to see if Channels can handle them?
  • Siege war will not be available at launch, but will be released with a delay to give everyone the chance to prepare their character, get famliarized with the game and understand the game’s core. Schedule for sieges is not set yet.
    Node Wars will be discussed to be tested in one of the CBTs, presumably in CBT 2, as there will be more players. This is not confirmed yet.
• Will you guys release info on the cash shop content before CBT2 and info about how the content will work (account bounded on purchase or not)?
  • We are planning to release details about our cash shop and pricing model towards launch, which is close to the CBT 2 stage. However, we can’t disclose details yet, because it is not finalized yet. But the tendency is that items are reduced in their prices compared to the Korean service.
• When CBT 1 and 2 comes out will we be allow to stream/screenshot/record?
  • Yes this is allowed. Please refer to the Terms of Service (aka Terms of Use) for details.
• Will be there a Character Wipe in CBT1 and CBT2 ?
  • Yes, simply because of the headstart feature that is being offered in the pre-order packages.
• Will you go through all change and final form of important subjects past the CBT stages to inform the community?
  • Yes, we are doing our best to be as transparent as possible. We are still building up our team to cover more ground. This interview is way to cover more ground within short time. We are also planning on releasing a PM Diary which is supposed to inform everyone about the ongoing discussions and possible changes being discussed with the developers.
• Will we have another Q&A after  CBT 1? because most of the people who are asking question are either people who played alpha or different region version. 
  • Yes, we can do that. If I forget to do it, please ‘kindly’ remind me
• Can it be assumed that before CBT 1 or when CBT1 occurs that we will get a list of the changes from Alpha to the CBT build?
  • Yes, we will publish detailed patchnotes/changelogs.

 

I hope I managed to cover at least some ground of those 500 questions. I know many of you will feel not fully satisfied as many important questions about PvP, in-game economy and the cash shop remain unanswered, but please understand that we are still adjusting those features from the Korean to the Western version, so it will take some more time to verify, benchmark and finalized those matters at our end before they are ready for sharing.

We will share more details on the run. We are currently considering, based on this interview, to create a PM Diary in which we would share more details about current ongoing issues that are being discussed with the developers. We will provide more details as we proceed with our plans

 

Thank you everyone for reading.

Best regards and have a nice weekend everyone,

Belsazar (waiting for the darker skin colors and bald head to finally have his forum avatar ready -_-)

 

Source: http://forum.blackdesertonline.com/index.php?/topic/1390-%C3%AEnterview-with-pm-belsazar-answers/